Thunderstorms and Magic
by lostinthewords
Summary: "Some storms bring us rain, some storms bring us light, some storms are damaging but they leave us with insight. Take pictures during the storms, to remember what each brought, admire all of the beauty in them and lessons they taught."-Unknown


Rick slowed his breathing to match the rain falling outside. Today had been a particularly rough case for his wife, the death of a child was already hard but ever since Jamie was born they hit a little too close to home for them. Even though he didn't join her at the precinct anymore, loving playing Mr. Mom instead, she still called him for theories or just to talk when she missed him. Sleep escaped him, despite not seeing the crime scene Kate had told him enough details for him to imagine it.

A flash lit up the room prompting him to count, 1, 2, 3…30 boom! Thunder rattled windows. Thirty seconds divided by 5 means it was 6 miles away; this was so much better than counting sheep.

"Daddy?" The quiet voice asked from the end of the bed.

Castle scooted to the edge of the bed, picked up his shaking daughter and set her on his lap.

He wiped the tears falling down her cheeks, "What's wrong sweetie?"

Lightning flashed through the room again, followed quickly by thunder; the storm was getting closer. His three year old buried herself closer in his arms, he tightened his arms around her and began rocking back and forth.

It was clear the storm woke her up, "Shhh it's okay. It can't hurt you." He whispered while continuing to rock and stroke her brunette curls.

Another strike of lightning and thunder went off, fresh tears stained her cheeks as she whimpered. He moved back until he rested against the headboard then pulled the blanket up over them.

"It's just a thunderstorm Jamie. They aren't scary, in fact they're magical."

She perked her head up, always fascinated with magic just like her father.

"Magical?" She didn't understand how something so scary could be magical.

"A long long time ago Princess Kate wasn't very happy. You see she wanted to go after the dragon that was terrorizing the land of New York City but Prince Rick didn't want her to."

"Why daddy? Girls can fight dragons."

He smiled, they taught her well. "You're right but Prince Rick was scared because the dragon had hurt many people before; he loved her and didn't want to Princess Kate to get hurt. So he asked her not to go fight him but she was a very stubborn princess, told him she was going to fight him anyways and if he didn't want to help then he should leave."

"What he do?" She asked so engrossed in the story she didn't notice the storm brewing outside.

"He left and even though he won't admit it he can be almost as stubborn as Princess Kate. He can be so stubborn that when Lord Ryan called him for help to save Princess Kate and Lord Esposito from the dragon he ignored him. But in his defense Lady Alexis was graduating and he couldn't miss that."

"Daddy," she whined, "Why are th-thun-thunter." Her eyebrows furrowed trying to concentrate on the word.

"Thunderstorms," He supplied.

She nodded, "Why those magical?" She asked, clearly impatient with this story.

"Patience young one, I'm almost there. So after Lord Ryan saved Princess Kate she wanted to think so she went for a walk and ended up at the park where it started to rain. Now this wasn't just any old park, this one was special. It was where Prince Rick and Princess Kate talked about grown up things, so when she was there she realized she missed her prince and he was more important to her than fighting the dragon. When she showed up at his door and said she was sorry there was thunder and lightning just like there is tonight."

"Did they live happily ever after?"

"Yes, they did. A few years after that night they got married, making them King Rick and Queen Kate then they had a Princess named Jamie and lived happily ever after."

Her face lit up in excitement, "Are you and mommy the prince and princess?"

He chuckled, "You caught that huh?"

She nodded.

He kissed the top of his daughter's head, "So you see thunderstorms bring magic if it weren't for the one that night you're mommy and I wouldn't be married and we wouldn't have you."

"I wanna sleep here." She asked staring at him so innocently with her golden eyes. Oh god he was in trouble, he could never say no but it didn't help she had his wife's eyes.

"Okay just for tonight though."

She snuggled into the bed between her parents; letting the comfort of them lull her to sleep.

"Princess Kate and Prince Rick huh?" Kate raised an eyebrow but cracked a smile.

"You heard all that?"

She nodded and carefully leaned over their daughter for a kiss, "You're right, thunderstorms are magical."


End file.
